Podcast

Finding Your Quiet Space With Movember’s Mitch Hermansen

Development Director at Movember Foundation | Vancouver, Canada

As the development director at the Movember Foundation, Mitch Hermansen is passionate about Men’s Mental health and is using one of his own mental fitness practices to raise awareness and funds for men’s mental health.

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This year my goal is to raise $5,000 for men’s mental health. To do it I’m going BIG, being a bit bold, and getting preeeetty cold…!

I’ll be swimming 8km in the Pacific Ocean. I’ve never swam that far; and for context, when I moved to Vancouver I could barely pump out 12 laps in the pool. Regardless, Im going for it. It will take me about 2.5 hours to complete.

Why am I doing this? Well, I never got to meet my grandfather. He died by suicide when I was only a few months old. To this day I often wonder what I missed out on. What I could have learned from him. What memories could have been made with my grandfather if things had been different.

So this is for him.

With 3/4 of all suicides being by men, it’s unfortunately not an uncommon story. Poor mental health is a killer, and it’s hitting the men in our lives. I want this swim, and my moustache, to be a symbol that gets people talking about it.